Savient Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SVNT) stock is surging on news that in two late-stage studies, its drug Puricase effectively treated patients with gout who had no success with other treatments. As I posted two weeks ago, this blockbuster drug has a potential to produce over $600 million in sales for Savient. Puricase, which treats gout, a painful inflammation of the joints caused by having too much uric acid built up in the blood, is a large and untapped market, as 3 million patients await their first new therapy in more than 30 years.

Savient plans to file a biologics licenses application with the Food and Drug Administration in 2008 based on the results from the trials. If the treatment gets regulatory approval, it will be the only treatment for unsuccessfully treated patients.

This is both great news for gout sufferers, who hopefully will be provided some well-deserved relief, as well as investors in Savient who look to profit over the long run.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. Disclosure: Writer owns stock and is long SVNT as of 12/13/07.

It peeves me just a little bit that in spite of some significant moves, there seems to be a lack of positive press for Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR). Oh, they received a good bit of spin out of their move to sign on to a series of directives promoting "best practices" for keeping tobacco out of the hands of minors, but those headlines were garnered in the interest of ivory tower politicos fanning their own egos, not in true recognition of Kroger itself.

What really gets me miffed though, is that the introduction of a $4 generic drug program at 76 of Kroger's pharmacies went virtually unnoticed by all except possibly a few hardcore AP writers who, after all, are responsible to report on just about everything.

So in the interest of "broad coverage," I now give you the link to the story at RetailingToday.com (registration required). I think the quip there provides a good, quick revelation regarding Kroger's generic drug efforts and it also makes a nice comparison between where Kroger is headed in the pharmaceutical business and how Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) is faring so far in that regard. We might note at this time that Wal-Mart has initiated a second price tier in its discount drug program.

Of additional interest in the Kroger camp was the recent indication by Jim Cramer that Kroger could be moving as high as $36. I won't disagree with that. Note that KR ended trading on 10-26-07 at $28.68, and was headed downward. Amid an overall positive attitude about the company, I believe that this puppy has room to run!

No doubt by now you have heard the good news regarding Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) and the shield it has in place for Celebrex. You can get some more insight on that by reading Douglas McIntyre's post.

Now the time is ripe for Pfizer to do something powerful. If it can accomplish one or two block buster product releases before mid-year, it'll be off to the races once again. In pursuit of that goal, Pfizer has a large stable of potential ground shakers in development. Here's an encapsulated view of what Pfizer has going right now in R&D:

I counted 49 formulations that Pfizer has in PHASE I of development. Of those compounds, ten are intended cancer treatments, eight are for inflammation and / or pain, including arthritis, 11 are directed towards cardiology, metabolic and endocrine conditions. Pfizer also has six compounds in PHASE I that are indicated for infectious diseases. Phase one drug testing focuses on compound safety rather than drug effectiveness.